Chester Williams, one of the Western Cape and South Africa’s favourite sporting sons, will oversee UWC’s historic first season in next year’s Varsity Cup.
It’s as appropriate as it will be significant that one of the province’s most iconic players will oversee a campaign that can only serve to highlight all that is strong at UWC.
Sport is so often a window into a varsity institution and for me there is a sense of rugby-normality that finally the Western Cape’s Varsity Cup participation will extend beyond UCT and the University of Stellenbosch.
The perception, too often presented as fact, was that when it came to university rugby in the Western Cape, UWC was an afterthought to Stellenbosch and UCT.
The fact is that rugby has always been important to the leadership at UWC. Equally, participation in all sports.
Excellence is a term easily used, but excellence is associated with UWC - an institution whose history is about fighting for justice, for equal opportunities and for hope.
The importance of sport at UWC is a fact, but indifferent results pre-2016 supported the perception that rugby and sport were secondary to the many academic achievements and investments at UWC.
Williams, a 1995 World Cup-winning Springbok, and former Bok scrumhalf Bolla Conradie have challenged those dismissive views of UWC rugby and transformed the rugby culture at the institution into one that speaks to champions and the desire to be champions.
They have in the last three years triumphed against the naysayers who refused to entertain that UWC, with investment in the right people and the right rugby attitude, could be as successful as their neighbours.
It’s been brilliant to experience.
Williams’s youngsters won the Varsity Shield in 2017 and 2018, but automatic qualification was only applicable in 2018.
The rugby campaign mirrored the ethos of a varsity steeped in history and synonymous with the unrelenting fight for a normal society in South Africa.
This earned recognition, to borrow from UWC’s leadership, is a game changer for the university.
It puts the varsity in a sporting media spotlight in a way that can only inspire future players to want to study at UWC and play for UWC in the Varsity Cup.
The victorious campaign and the support from staff, students and the leadership is also evidence of the varsity’s approach to being the best in all fields, be it academic, cultural or sport.
The achievement is also consistent with the institution leadership’s mantra of UWC being “an agent for change” and a place that gives hope and provides opportunities for students to be the best and compete against the best.
Why, you may ask, is my focus this week on a team that won the Varsity Shield earlier in the year, and only play in the Varsity Cup early next year?
Because they’re my rugby story of the year in the Western Cape and in a South African context.
And they’re my rugby story of the year because their success is greater than the on-field results and the victory is as much about the future as it is about a trophy.
These young men have proved they belong on the main stage of varsity rugby and they’ve added sporting excellence to all that is already excellent at the institution.
UWC, on so many fronts historically, has demanded respect for influencing an improved Western Cape and South Africa.
Now the varsity also has a rugby team that will demand respect.
If you want a good news story in South Africa rugby this year, then it’s Williams’s blue-and-gold UWC warriors.
Keohane, a multiple award-winning sports journalist, is the head of Independent Media sport